Kurt
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "brave counselor".
Name Census estimates that about 72,706 living Americans carry the first name Kurt. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kurt today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kurt births was 1964 (3,169 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kurt. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Kurt with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Kurt is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 196 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Kurt have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
73K
~ 1 in 4,714 Americans
Peak year
1964
3,169 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,103
Tracked since 1894
Census
Kurt in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 74,867 people with the first name Kurt, which placed it at #693 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#693
National first-name rank
People counted
75K
74,867 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
24.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kurt
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kurt is White at 90.6%. The next largest groups are Black (3.1%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Kurt described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Kurt at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.6% · 67,843
- Black or African American3.1% · 2,313
- Two or more races2.1% · 1,572
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 1,568
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 1,272
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 299
Gender
Gender distribution for Kurt
Out of the 85,998 babies given the name Kurt since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Kurt as a male name
- Ranked #2,103 in 2024
- 71 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1964 (3,159 births)
Kurt as a female name
- Ranked #13,485 in 1989
- 5 female births in 1989
- Peak: 1969 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kurt appears almost entirely male. Of the 74,867 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Kurt: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kurt from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 28,299 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kurt by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Kurt during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kurts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Illinois, Michigan recorded the most babies named Kurt, while Delaware, Mississippi, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,605 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kurt
The name Kurt is of German origin, derived from the Middle High German word "kurt" which means "short" or "brief." This name likely originated during the medieval period in German-speaking regions of Europe.
Kurt is a shortened form of the Germanic name Konrad or Conrad, which is composed of the elements "kuon" meaning "brave" and "rat" meaning "counsel." The name Konrad was popular among the Frankish nobility during the Middle Ages, and it's believed that the shorter form Kurt emerged as a diminutive or nickname.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kurt can be found in the "Nibelungenlied," a legendary German epic poem from around the 13th century. In this work, there is a character named Kurt, who is described as a brave warrior and a loyal companion to the hero Hagen.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kurt. One of the most famous is Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), the American writer and satirist known for his novels such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle."
Another prominent figure was Kurt Eisner (1867-1919), a German politician and revolutionary who briefly served as the Prime Minister of Bavaria after the fall of the Bavarian monarchy in 1918.
In the world of classical music, Kurt Weill (1900-1950) was a renowned German composer who made significant contributions to the development of modern opera and musical theater.
Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) was a German artist and poet, best known for his pioneering work in the Dada and Constructivist movements, which challenged traditional artistic conventions.
Finally, Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) was an Austrian logician and mathematician who made groundbreaking contributions to the fields of logic and foundations of mathematics, including his famous "Incompleteness Theorems."
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have carried the name Kurt throughout history, reflecting its enduring presence and significance across various fields and cultures.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Kurt
People
Kurt + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kurt as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kurt: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kurt?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 72,706 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kurt going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,714 US residents.
Is Kurt a common name?
We classify Kurt as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 85,998 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kurt most popular?
The single biggest year for Kurt was 1964, when 3,169 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kurt is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kurt in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 74,867 people with the name Kurt, or 24.79 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #693 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Kurt in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Kurt?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kurt appears almost entirely male. Of the 74,867 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Kurt?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kurt is White at 90.6%. The next largest groups are Black (3.1%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Kurt most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kurt in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.6% (67,843 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Kurt in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kurt a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Kurt in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Kurt still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kurt in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Kurt can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Kurt?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.